EA-18G GROWLER FROM HASEGAWA

David Jefferis inspects:

Hasegawa’s 1:48 scale Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft is one of the best-looking aircraft models I’ve seen for a while, and a true candidate for an ultra-careful standard build, straight from the box. 

Neat detailing

As you can see from these pictures supplied by Hasegawa, the EA-18G is loaded with neat detail, including all those nicely recessed rivets, candidates for the most delicate weathering job possible, the object just to enhance and bring them out a little. 

Cockpit detail

A full suite of ordnance is supplied with the kit, and the various pods, tanks and missiles fill up the stores points on the wings and belly, to give the model that oh-so-nice ‘loaded for bear’ look. Cockpit detail for the two-seater EA-18G is well up to Hasegawa standards, and clearly shows the raised rear seat position. Hasegawa supplies a cleanly-moulded ladder, but you’ll have to supply your own figures from one of the 1:48 sets available.

Full decal set

Markings are supplied for two USN squadrons, VAQ-129 Vikings and VAQ-141 Shadowhawks, the latter of which features as the subject of the extremely handsome box-art. Dozens of tiny stencil warnings are supplied, as are decals for the instruments.

First combat missions

The real thing is flying as the newest electronic attack platform in the US Navy’s airborne arsenal, a specialized version of the two-seat F/A-18F Super Hornet. The Growler’s chief asset is its ability to block enemy radar and electronic systems, and the aircraft was used for just this kind of task during its first combat missions earlier this year, during Operation Odyssey Dawn, enforcing the United Nations no-fly zone over Libya. Like most aircraft these days, its service life is planned for decades rather than years - so it’s likely that Growlers will operate from carriers through to 2035 and beyond.

The real thing - a Growler approaches for a deck landing.

If you’re interested in current front-line naval aircraft, the Hasegawa EA-18G Growler is definitely a kit that should be on your list. Released last month, it’s becoming available through dealers and online now. It's worth mentioning that there are other versions of the EA-18G

available, in scales ranging from 1:144 to 1:35 - a good choice if you wish to model this important weapon in the US arsenal.

Pictures courtesy Hasegawa.

SUNDAY TREAT - AUTOMODELLISMO SHOW FOR SCALE MODEL CARS

SMN preview:

Automodellismo is the only model show in the UK that specialises in cars. The show has been running for several years, but now the venue is that of the HaMeX show - Hanslope Village Hall, north of Milton Keynes, Bucks. Automodellismo is being organised by some of the HaMeX organisers, especially Paul Fitzmaurice of little-cars.com. 

Tools for modelmakers

Paul will be showing his selection of modelling tools and accessories, and also kits for sale. Vince Brown of Models For Sale, the main UK importer of Japanese auto exotica, will be there too, plus SMN’s own Mat Irvine, who will have kits from his vast collection for sale. There’ll also be models from Mat’s latest book Scale Car Modelling, due for publication in September.

And of course, let’s not forget the hundreds of scale cars on display from various model clubs - Automodellismo promises to be a fascinating show.

Opening times

Public entry to Automodellismo is from 19.00-1630, entry being £2.00GBP, with free entry for accompanied under-16 children. There’s also plenty of free parking around the venue.

Automodellismo link here.

Visit Little-cars here.

Visit Mat Irvine here.

Visit Models For Sale here

INVASION OF THE CAR-TOONS - ZINGERS ARE BACK!

Mat Irvine takes a less than serious view:

Zingers date back to the 1970s, and are caricatures of cars and trucks. The vehicles have oversized engines, mounted on undersized bodies, an effect which gives them an original look, to say the least. Zingers originated by a roundabout route, as the idea actually came from model maker Dennis Johnson, as his entry in a competition run by the original MPC company in the early 1970s. His entries created such an impression that MPC decided to produce them as kits, coming out with eight-strong collection.

They haven’t been available for 30 years or so, but now they have all been reissued by Round 2 models, the Indiana-based collectibles company that includes MPC among its group of brands.

Detailing for a hot rod finish

The Zingers are simple kits, though details can be added, just as you might with a more ‘normal’ kit. Drilling out the exhaust pipe ends so they look hollow is a good idea, as is carefully dulling the slick tyres with liquid cement to give them a worn appearance. Going further, you can really make a Zinger sparkle by adding wiring to the engine block - and given that it is a large block, this is a very straightforward task. 

Parts layout. The windshield isn’t clear - instead, it’s opaque back

Dodge Little Red Wagon on the dragstrip.

What’s in the box?

The one shown here - the Little Red Zinger - is an obvious play on Bill Maverick’s Little Red Wagon dragster (though the Zinger is actually a different, newer pickup model). It shouldn’t take too long to assemble, as there are just 44 parts in the box. The plastic is moulded in black and white, plus lots of chrome plating. As Zingers are tooned and exaggerated versions of the real thing, scale is perhaps somewhat academic, but as a guide, the vehicles are basically 1:32 scale, with the engines approximately 1:20. So they would look pretty good next to, for example, a straight-laced group of true-scale machines, whether from Airfix or Scalextric.

The finished thing. Note the engine wiring.

Chuck and Steve

But that’s not the end of the Zinger story. For, having started out as kits, six of the eight were built to ‘full-size’ 1:1 scale, by car customizers Chuck Miller and Steve Tansy. In fact Chuck and Steve worked backwards with their scale creations, by giving them real engines, mounted on reduced-size bodies. As you can see in the pic below, the results were ace. The vehicles were commissioned by Promotions Inc, an outfit that ran custom car shows in the USA throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Ironically, the Little Red Zinger was one of the two vehicles that weren’t included! 

Visit Round 2 here.

There's a mini-history of the Zingers at Hot Rod magazine. Note HR’s comment: ‘We dig the chick’s threads’ - SMN too! Click here to visit.

1:25 SCALE INTERNATIONAL LONESTAR TRUCK KIT FROM MOEBIUS MODELS

Mat Irvine inspects:

When the first 1:25 scale truck kit came out, the sheer size of it was a great surprise to anyone used to much smaller car kits. This 'first of the many' was produced by AMT in the mid-1960s, and featured a US Peterbilt conventional ('conventional' denoting a car-style hood or bonnet). Since then, we’ve seen a whole range of trucks in 1:25 and 1:24 scales from model companies such as Italeri and Ertl, plus both US and German Revell companies.  

Trucks kits aplenty

Most of the main world truck manufactures have been represented in kit form, such as the US brands Ford, GMC, Kenworth, Peterbilt and White; we’ve also had European makes such as MAN, Mercedes-Benz, Scania and Volvo. Kits have included conventional and cab-overs, special vehicles such as wrecker trucks and tankers, plus a whole load of trailers to be hitched along behind. But one truck manufacturer that’s been near-invisible on the model stage has been International. Ertl did make a few kits in the past, but now a new name - in trucks at least - makes an appearance, Moebius Models. 

A new direction for Moebius

Moebius Models isn’t a new name, but it is mostly linked to a number of - very welcome it has to be said - science-fiction and fantasy kits. But Moebius is now branching out into more earthy subject matter, the first offering being the distinctive-looking International LoneStar conventional truck. Combining brand new technical design with a retro, almost Art Deco look, and a grille that looks as if it came off a Chrysler PT Cruiser, the LoneStar couldn’t be mistaken for any other truck on the Interstate. 

The box is packed with finely-moulded components.

What’s in the box?

Moebius has made an amazingly detailed kit. It comprises more than 300 parts, most moulded in light grey, plus clear and chrome-plated runners. Car designers may have abandoned chrome for the most part these days, but trucks still make use of a lot of brightwork. The comprehensive instructions are printed in full-colour, and give some finish variations - though being a truck, markings can be more or less what you want. There are full-size trucks in both blue and dark red pictured on the box-art, the box-top featuring one parked outside the Moebius warehouse. Hopefully, it was there to collect a trailer full of kits of itself!

Instructions are very comprehensive.

I haven’t put a truck kit together for a good few years, but this one is certainly on the pile to be built ‘in the near future’ - so watch this space.

Retro-styled design

Intriguingly the genesis for the LoneStar’s retro-styling came from a 1939 International D-Series pickup. The Ohio-based oldster was rebuilt and completed for International in January 2008, with added custom extras to give it a street-rod flavour.

Thanks to Frank Winspur at Moebius Models for the review kit. Keep ‘em coming Frank - how about making a kit of the DMAXX next?

DMAXX pictures courtesy International Trucks. More on this vehicle here.

Visit Moebius here.

NEW BOOK FROM A FRENCH AUTHOR - 1973-2000 THE STORY OF MATCHBOX KITS

Mat Irvine reviews:

The well-known French modeller, Jean-Christophe Carbonel (otherwise known to all as ‘JC’), has produced another book for the French publisher, Histoire & Collections.

The Story of Matchbox Kits homes in on a very British subject, and those whose French may not be up to scratch can breath a sigh of relief right now, as the edition I am talking about here is printed in English!

JC at the UK IPMS Scale Model World, Telford.

History of kits

The Story of Matchbox Kits is dated ‘1973-2000’ which takes in the formation of Matchbox Kits out of Matchbox Toys, up until the name more or less ceased to exist. By then, the ‘kits’ part had been acquired by Revell-Germany, which continued to use the Matchbox name for while, though eventually the original kits were assimilated into the general Revell catalog. But the quarter-century plus during which Matchbox Kits were produced is well covered in the paperback book’s 84 full-colour pages, supported by 300 photographs. The book takes you right from the start in 1973, when the first Matchbox Kit range was shown at the 1973 UK Brighton Toy Fair, until the new millennium, when the name - for kits at least - had been virtually abandoned.

Different colours

In between these dates however, there is a vast amount of information and JC details each year’s releases, many of them illustrated with photos of the box-art. The book shows the arrival of the first AFVs in the mid-1970s, soon followed by the first 1:32 scale cars.  This was a time when Matchbox moulded its kits in multi-coloured plastic - two, sometimes three, colours. This feature brought disapproving grunts from some who thought it purely a gimmick, but it meant junior modellers could start the hobby without necessarily resorting to paint, and anyway, experienced modellers would paint them regardless, so it hardly mattered!  

Book spread with the ‘Tony James’ advertisement.

Original box-art for the Matchbox Heyford kit. It was later reboxed as a Revell kit.

Later years
The years when Matchbox’s owner Lesney bought AMT are also covered, with the incorporation of much of the latter’s range - somewhat unsuccessfully it has to be said - into the Matchbox list. Also included are some of the several double-page ads that Matchbox placed in the modelling press, including one that featured a certain Aircraftsman Anthony James - at that point serving in the UK Royal Air Force - extolling the virtues of the 1:72 scale Matchbox Handley-Page Heyford. Tony James is now better known as the owner of Comet Miniatures, the specialist sci-fi and fantasy model establishment in South London.

Built-up model of the Heyford.

The book is available at a good discount here, where it earns a 5-star reader review.

Visit Comet Miniatures here.

LAST LANDING - SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS RETURNS TO EARTH

It’s the end of the space trucking era, says David Jefferis:

Forty two years after Armstrong and Aldrin stepped onto the Moon’s surface, it was touchdown for the Space Shuttle Atlantis, and the last-ever mission for the most complex spacecraft system ever built. There’s moaning and groaning by the bucketload, with headlines claiming the end of the US space program, but the reality is that the Shuttle, whatever its merits, represented a retreat from the Moon and true space exploration. For the Shuttle was a space truck to Earth orbit, and no further. Let’s hope that privateer companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, fulfill their ambitions and take humans onward and outward, to explore the High Frontier.

Big model

Back to the workbench, and of the many, many Shuttle models, which is the best one for the nostalgia-buff to assemble? Well, the real answer is that there is no single kit that’s head and shoulders over the rest, but there is one that’s big, detailed, and really rather original, as it is a see-through model. And this is the 1:72 scale Aoshima 4D Vision Space Shuttle. If (like me) you’re limited with your modelling time, then this 520 mm (20 in) long model could be what you need. It’s a fun-to-play-with item too, incorporating operating features that include cargo bay doors, robot arm, and drop-down landing gear.

What’s in the box?

Open up the big box and you’ll find trays holding major parts, with a host of smaller pieces separately bagged underneath. The instructions contain a shuttle history, parts layout page, and assembly steps. Putting the Shuttle together is not too difficult, though non-Japanese readers (there's no English translation) need to take things slowly, especially when it comes to putting together the complex pipework inside the tail section. The port wing, with its transparent skin covering bright-orange interior construction, is a thing of beauty, though It’s worth mentioning that despite this being a clip-tight kit, you’ll still need cement for various parts that don’t fit quite snugly enough.

Simplified appearance

So far as accuracy goes, this model only gets 7/10, mainly because so much of it is simplified, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, at this scale, you really do want to see heaps of intricate detail in the finished thing. My suggestion for a first-class result would be to allow plenty of time for brushwork and and some light weathering. That goes for the Shuttlenaut figures too, which are so-so (though one looks pretty neat doing an EVA) and again, would benefit from some TLC with the camelhair brush.

Remember also, that this is just the winged Orbiter. If you want a ‘full-stack' Shuttle, then you’ll have to add an External Tank (ET) and Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) from elsewhere - in this case, sourcing an old Monogram kit via ebay might be a solution.

Summation

It’s big, bold, colourful, and the see-through aspect makes it educational into the bargain. So whatever nitpicks there are, the fact is that to the untutored eye, the 4D Vision Space Shuttle looks terrific straight from the box, and will look even better with some careful detailing work. Mounted atop the sturdy stand, it will make a fine memento to mark 30 years of space trucking.

Pictures courtesy the interesting forum site Maquettes Spatiales here.

BACK TO THE FUTURE - APOLLO 11 MOON LANDING 42nd ANNIVERSARY TODAY

David Jefferis reports:

Forty two years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon, while Michael Collins orbited high above in the Apollo Command Module. The Lunar Module (LM) was a four-legged aluminium-skinned contraption that was a true ‘space’ craft, designed for operation in a vacuum, with none of the smooth streamlined shape necessary for flight in a planetary atmosphere.

Apollo 11 models

There are various models available that commemorate the landing, including the 1:72 scale Airfix diorama kit that includes the LM, a neatly sculpted rectangle of cratered lunar terrain and logistics support in the form of surface instruments, a mixed bunch of astronauts, and Lunar Rovers. The terrain base is a good size, somewhat larger than an A4 sheet, at 348 mm (13.7 in) long x 247 mm (9.7 in). Cement, acrylic paints, and a brush are also included.

Extra astronauts supplied by Airfix

The Apollo 11 landing involved only Armstrong and Aldrin, so the supplied group of astronauts are there for creating a fictional ‘what-if?’ scene, though later missions carried a Lunar Rover, so this Airfix kit can also be used to depict more than the ‘One small step for Man’ flagged on the box-top.

Dreams of space exploration

Interestingly, two of the Airfix astronauts are using one-person flying platforms, which were definitely once part of NASA’s future vision, but which were never actually constructed. Still, we can all dream - I visualized a nuclear-powered Mars ship around this time, when I worked on The Observer Sunday newspaper. I worked on the concept with NASA rocketeers who really thought we could be walking on the Red Planet by 1980! Well, that particular dream vanished when Apollo and the NERVA nuclear rocket programs were cancelled; the rest is history, as is the Space Shuttle. 

A spacecraft called Apollo 27

The actual Moon missions never went beyond Apollo 17, but for a look at what Apollo 27 might have looked like, click here for a closer look at the fictional spacecraft from Pegasus Hobbies, in California. The tubby streamliner (shown above) seems to have been influenced more by old TV shows and 1950s sci-fi book jackets than a depiction of a possible ‘real-space’ solution, and it’s an exo-endo atmospheric design into the bargain, complete with bubble canopy. Still, I’m not complaining - it’s a fun design and is to 1:72 scale, so would look great standing next to the Airfix Apollo 11 lander.

Space Pod from ‘Lost in Space’

There’s a somewhat more realistic pod design that’s been around for a looong time, and that’s the angular Space Pod from the 1960s children’s TV show ‘Lost in Space’. The 1:24 model comes from Moebius Models, and features an opening hatch, so once again diorama possibilities spring to mind - and for this scale and subject you could add alien critters based on model dinosaurs, and tentacled plant-life for a true out-of-this-world display.

Visit Apollo 27 from Pegasus Hobbies here.

Visit the Space Pod at Moebius Models, here.

Various Apollo kits are available at decent discounts here.

ATLANTIS MODELS - 1:6 SCALE AURORA BISON KIT BROUGHT UP TO DATE

Mat Irvine looks at a retro-engineered kit:

The original Aurora company excelled at figures, especially TV and movie stars, but the company also made a whole range of animal kits. Sadly, few of these exist today, as mould materials and tool frames were often reused to make new kits when Aurora was at its height, or in later years when Monogram took over the tooling, many were considered no longer viable, and destroyed. 

The original Aurora box-art, very different to the Atlantis version. 

Back to the future now

Today, several new kit companies - collectively  dubbed ‘The New Aurora’ - have come to the rescue. Surviving production tooling has been re-used, or where tooling has long gone, new versions have been made by retro- (or back-) engineering, in which new tooling is made by copying the parts of an original unbuilt kit. One of the newest companies specialising in reissuing or recreating old Aurora kits is Atlantis Models, and here we are looking at the company’s re-tool of what Aurora called the American Buffalo. This was one of a set of six North American wildlife models, the other five being the Black Bear and Cubs (already made by Atlantis to a larger 1:10 scale), White Tailed Deer, Cougar, Big Horn Sheep (on the Atlantis upcoming kit list), and White Stallion. 

Bison components laid out.

Modelling putty used to fill the seams.

Big bull bison

The Atlantis kit is almost identical to Aurora’s original (only the nameplate differs) and is made to the same 1:16 scale. It’s something of an in-between scale, but even so the assembled animal - an adult male - is 127 mm (5 in) high. He stands on a piece of grassland terrain some 235 mm (9.25 in) long that is an exact replica of the Aurora original, even down to a pair of prairie dogs. 

Scalpel is useful to scrape components when needed.

Needle file smooths off joins and filler.

What’s in the box

Construction is very straightforward, with just 24 components to assemble, including the base and two name plates, so - as with most of these types of kit - the time you put in is mostly down to the finish. Bison are usually dark-brown, almost black, throughout most of the coat, which varies winter and summer (the kit depicting the latter) though streaks of reddish-brown often appear. It’s a good opportunity to dig out those odd pots of browns, reds and greys, to use them up! You can also practise your dry-brushing, in which you wipe most of the paint off the brush, then lightly drag it over the surface, to leave just a hint of colour, a highly suitable technique for this subject.

The finished bison is reasonably convincing, and the base includes a choice of nameplate.

Two prairie dogs inhabit the ground beneath the bison’s feet.

Buffalo or bison?

So should the kit be Aurora’s ‘Buffalo’ or the Atlantis ‘Bison’? Well, Atlantis has the name correct, though the colloquial ‘American Buffalo’ is often used to distinguish the species from others around the world.

Bison kit supplied courtesy Atlantis Models. Visit the website here.

Aurora American Buffalo box image supplied courtesy Andy Yanchus.